1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of network publications through a feed service and, more particularly, to using a group list server as a syndication feed server.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, list management servers and syndication feed servers are special purpose servers—each serving a different function, each using different protocols and conventions, each being implemented by separate server software, and each being used by separate client software. To elaborate, a list management server traditionally is used to create and manage network-based group definitions and associated lists of members for defined groups. The list management server can maintain access lists, permissions, and other service specific properties associated with groups and group members. Use of a list management server permits a user's contact list, such as an email list or a personal address book, to be specified and used in an application independent manner. This can allow a user's contact list to be used by an email program at work and at home, by a mobile telephony device of the user, and the like. List management servers also support group list nesting so that one list can be referenced within another. The list management server further permits multiple users to share lists, such as sharing contact lists among employees in a company. Numerous standards exist to ensure compatibility of server managed lists, such as the XML Configuration Access Protocol (XCAP) standard of the Internet Engineering Task Force (ETF).
In contrast, a syndication server permits users to subscribe to syndication feeds. A syndication feed, such as a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) or an Atom Syndication Format (ATOM) feed, are used to provide items containing short descriptions of Web content together with a link to a full version of the content and/or with a text version of the full content. Syndication feeds are used to publish frequently updated content, such as BLOG entries, news headlines, or podcasts. Feed content can be read using a feed reader or an aggregator. That is, users subscribe to a feed by entering the feed's link into the reader. The reader regularly checks subscribed feeds for new content and downloads any new content related to these feeds.
FIG. 1 (Prior Art) is included to pictorially illustrate conventional implementations of a feed server shown in arrangement 110 and a list server shown in arrangement 150. In the prior art feed server arrangement 110, a client 120 can subscribe to a feed server 130 that provides syndication feeds. The feed server 130 can gather content from one or more Web sources 140. For instance, one or more Web servers 140 can provide Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) pages to the feed server 130 responsive to server 130 issued requests. The feed server 130 can utilize a converter 132 to extract content from the HTML pages and to repackage it into an XML format. The repackaged content can differ from the original content in that it no longer includes presentation information, but only content. Users of interface 122 can trigger a poll event to one or more feed servers 130 which results in a streamed update. The update can contain any content corresponding to the subscription that the server 130 has received since a last poll. A single client 120 can include an aggregator 124 component that combines content from multiple feed servers 130 into a user configured view. Aggregation can also occur within a Web server (not shown) that provides feed content to client 120.
In the group list server arrangement 150, different communication nodes 160 can each connect to a list management server 172 via network 170. Each node 160 can include a user 162-164 and a computing device 166-168. The same user 162-164 can use the list management server 172 as a central repository for storing contact information used by multiple different devices 166-168. Further, different users 162-164 can share a common set of server 172 maintained information, such as sharing updated business contact information among a set of business agents. The list management server 172 can maintain and use a set of list server tables 180. These tables 180 can include a group table 182, a participant table 186, and a linkage table 184, which links the group 182 and participant tables 186. The group table 182 can maintain information concerning the groups that the list server 172 manages, such as a group id, a group name, a description and other attributes. The participant table 186 can maintain information concerning group members, such as a participant id, name, device address, and status. The linkage table 184 can associate group table 182 items to participant table 186 items in a many-to-many relationship.